Living on stolen time
by Sanne-chan
Summary: I was frozen in time, entranced by the hypnotizing red glow. I could feel my breathing slow down, my surroundings disappear and my body go numb as I continued to stare into its eyes, unable to look away...


**A/N** What's this? An angsty one-shot? From SANNE-CHAN?! You better believe it! I have bought the Prince of Persia Trilogy box and I'm close to finishing the Two Thrones. I love all three games, yes, even Warrior Within. In fact, it was my favorite part. I loved the music: it was different from SoT, but I think it fitted the game very well. Think about it: when you are being chased by a twelve feet horned monster with hentai-like tentacles, you won't be such a happy camper either.

What inspired this fic? 

One thing bugged me about Warrior Within: the GLITCHES! I suffered the dreaded "wraith glitch" and had to reload from a previous save file. However, I heard of a far worse glitch: a player would push Kaileena through the portal, but then he or she could not follow her. It affected all save files and the player had no choice but to delete them all and start a new game. Gasp!

After reading about this glitch, I wondered: what would happen if Prince somehow managed to trap himself in a Portal room after a Dahaka chase… and said Dahaka would not leave? Only one way to find out…

* * *

**Living on stolen time **

For a moment, I hesitated. Would I do it? Should I do it? Did I even have a choice? Defiantly, she glared at me with those unearthly green eyes and reached for something behind her back. As the glimmer of her blades came into view, I quickly cast my doubts aside and roughly pushed her onto the platform. A surprised gasp escaped her lips as the portal started to glow and the light engulfed her, transporting the empress to the present. Or was it the future? To some it might even be the past. I rubbed my temples: trying to unravel the workings of time always gave me a headache. The human mind was simply not able to perform such a task, to grasp the concept of time as an ocean swirling in a violent storm instead of a gentle flowing river, predictable and calm like mankind itself.

… Alright, that was lie. Mankind was anything but predictable and calm. I know **I** certainly wasn't. Perhaps I had been in my younger years, but too much has happened since I traveled with my father to India. Too much has happened since that dreadful day I gave in to dark temptation and made the gravest mistake of my life.

The hourglass… The Dagger…The Sands of Time…

I violently shook my head. There was no time to dwell on visions of what could have been or memories of events that would soon be erased from Time itself. I would not fail again! This time, I would make sure that…

A low rumbling noise suddenly caught my attention. I felt my blood run cold when I saw the red carpet beneath my feet lose it's color and the golden glow on the walls slowly turning grey.

As if bitten by a rattlesnake, I startled and spun around just in time to see my nemesis crashing trough the ceiling of the hallway: the Dahaka never really was one for doors. Growling fiercely, I reached for my sword, ready to defend myself. However, it made no move to grab me with it's enormous claws or those dreaded tentacles that sometimes, during a chase, sprouted from it's abdomen in an attempt to wrap around my body and drag me back towards to my death. I then noticed the thin sheet of water that separated me from the guardian of the timeline. How such a simple thing could strike terror into the heart of that monster, was still beyond me. The creature didn't even dare to knock a hole in the wall, most likely afraid of striking one of the pipes. The steady flow of water had to come from somewhere, and obviously that thing wasn't going to take any chances.

I smirked and headed for the portal. In a few seconds, there would be no Dahaka behind that watery curtain. There would only be me and the empress, both fighting to change our fate. I stepped onto the platform and closed my eyes, waiting for the golden glow and the swirling sands to take me to the present. Imagine the look on my face when I felt nothing and eventually opened my eyes, only to be greeted by an unchanged room and the Dahaka grinning menacingly at me as if it had already known what would happen. I started to feel rather queasy. That creature… it hadn't actually sabotaged the portal, had it? Was it clever enough to think of such a scheme, let alone carry it out? I did not believe so. I had crossed many portals: if the Dahaka was capable of disabling them, he would have done so earlier. No, it had to be something else…

Trying to suppress my growing panic, I looked around and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the four switches on the walls. Of course! You had to activate the portal first before you could use it!

A small voice in the back of my head told me it wouldn't work. That the portal had already been activated. That only moments ago someone had passed trough it successfully without even lifting a finger. I ignore the voice, feverishly clinging to this new spark of hope. It would work. I needed it to work. It _HAD_ to work!

I ran up the wall and hit the first switch. To my horror, nothing happened. The light didn't flicker, the sands above the platform kept swirling undisturbed. Praying to the gods, I hit the other switches, but my desperate pleas were to no avail. I kept hitting the switches, going around in circles and running up the walls until my stomach almost emptied itself on the portal. Disorientated, I clumsily stumbled across the room and landed rather ungracefully on my behind. All three Dahakas looked very amused as I closed my eyes and tried to get rid of the dizzy spell while trying to think of a plan. How was I ever going to escape?

* * *

How long had I been trapped here now? Minutes? Hours? Days perhaps? I couldn't help but frown at the irony of possessing a medallion that was able to control time, but not tell it. My stomach growled and I slowly got up and made my way to the fountain, though I knew the magical water could only sustain me for so long. It could heal my body and replenish my energy, but only to a certain degree. Sooner or later I would still need to eat and perhaps even worse: sleep. I shivered involuntarily at the thought: for years I had nightmares of the Dahaka even before it had made itself known. I had dismissed these nightly visions as fabrications of my troubled mind, blaming them on stress from my disturbing adventure in the sultan's palace. Every morning I woke up in cold sweat and pushed the beast away, only for it to return at night until my nightmares turned into reality and I could deny it's existence no more. The Dahaka found me buying supplies at the market, destroying everything and everyone in it's wake. By some miracle I escaped it's deadly grasp, but I for a brief second I had seen them… I had seen it's eyes… and I knew that it would never let me go. 

I know this may sound foolish, but for some reason I believed that the nightmares would be over. They had been visions of what was to come, so now that the Dahaka had finally appeared in my life, surely they would not return. But alas, not even in my dreams could I find refuge from that dreaded beast. That is what it does, you know. It hunts you at dawn and haunts you at dusk until you completely lose your sanity, and I have to admit that it's quite effective. Forget starvation or burning hot pokes. Sleep deprivation is the ultimate method of torture. And now, I would have to spend the night on the Island of Time, with the Dahaka itself watching my defenseless sleeping form at less than a stone's throw away.

I tried staying awake, but I was fighting a losing battle. I had already given up on staying on my feet hours ago. I had slumped down on the floor with my back resting against a wall, as far away from the creature as the confinements of the room allowed me. My eyelids became heavy and I could no longer force myself to keep them open. I looked down at my feet: I had torn a piece of my clothing and used it to bind them together. I tend to be somewhat restless at night, and I did not come this far just to sleepwalk right into it's claws. My sword and mace (which I had 'borrowed' from a sand creature) were strategically placed next to me, where I would hurt myself and wake up if I rolled over and strayed too far from the wall. The Dahaka watched me with mild interest, but I just shot a tired look back. I finally allowed sleep to claim me and that night, for the first time in years, I did not dream.

* * *

I woke up with my feet untied, but thankfully still on the right side of the waterfall. I also found my sword in the fountain and a substantial amount of sand in my left ear. I have no idea how THAT happened. I dried my sword and had a drink, banishing the hunger pains for the moment. That night of dreamless sleep had done me good, but I was very much aware of my luck. Even if I found a way to keep myself in one place, that still didn't guarantee my safety. Water was the greatest (and as far as I knew, only) weakness of the Dahaka. Yet, it had somehow managed to cross the ocean and reach the Island of Time. If it could do that, it would only be a matter of time before it would find a way to reach me here. It could take days, perhaps even months, but it would succeed. The Dahaka seemed to know what I was thinking as it looked at me and spoke. 

"Eta ruoy egnahc tonnac ouy!"

You cannot change your fate. That's what it said. When rewinding time, I had found out that it's seemingly incoherent speech was just reversed. As a child, I used to talk in reverse with my younger brother. It felt exiting, like we had our own secret language, unable for the adults to understand. How ironic that this innocent childhood memory now served me to decipher the roars of a dark and wicked creature, bent solely on my demise.

"I WILL change my fate!" I snapped back angrily. "It does not matter that I opened the hourglass! I used the Sands of Time themselves to make it as if they had never been released! You have no quarrel with me!"

The Dahaka's eyes flashed red, obviously it did not agree. I knew why: I had freed the Sands as the timeline had foretold, but I should never have survived long enough to return them to the hourglass and undo my fatal mistake. It didn't matter that I had set back time and returned the dagger: my fate was still to die.

"Enilemit eht tpursid regnol on lliw uoy!"

"Why can't you just leave me in peace!" I yelled, throwing my mace at it's head in a fit of anger. The minute I had let go, I felt like smacking myself. The Dahaka grinned at me, victoriously holding in it's claws half of my weaponry. I took a deep breath and leaned against a pillar, resting my head in my hands. I had to stay calm and not let my frustration get the best me. If I wanted to get out of this situation alive, I needed a clear head, preferably still on my shoulders. I glanced at the Dahaka: it was behaving rather strange. Normally he would leave at some point after being denied entrance to a portal room, but this time it had decided to simply sit down next to the waterfall. Why?

I was about to humor myself and ask, when the creature's eyes suddenly found mine. Darkness started eating away at the edge of my vision but I was frozen in time, entranced by the hypnotizing red glow. I could feel my breathing slow down, my surroundings disappear and my body go numb as I continued to stare into those eyes, unable to look away.

I could feel it entering my mind, going trough my thoughts and finding the single memory I could never let go. Farah… how my heart bled when she failed to remember, how I still shed tears for her every night, how I yearned for her gentle touch, her loving embrace, her soft lips on my own. If death was my fate, why couldn't I have died in her arms?

Maybe I would have… The old man never told me how exactly my life was to end. It couldn't have been during the opening of the hourglass, or those who were also protected from the effects of the Sand would have been pursued by the Dahaka as well and I would have know if something had happened to Farah. I can't explain why, but I just knew. Had one of those dreaded sand creatures stabbed me in the back? Had I met my fate at the hands of the Vizier? Or perhaps I had just fallen off a ledge? I can't even begin to remember the many times I miscalculated a jump and used the dagger to stop myself from plummeting towards my death.

No… if anything, I had most likely been shot. I couldn't help but grin slightly as I remembered frantically dodging wave after wave of Farah's arrows and then getting scowled at when I dared to comment on her aim. Sometimes I could almost swear I heard the sand creatures cheering her on.

Still, what a blissful death it would have been. Because if I had died at her hands… at least she would remember. Instead my arrogance had cause me to hesitate when we finally reached the hourglass. At the moment she needed me the most, I let Farah down and triggered a chain of events that would eventually lead to her demise instead of mine…

Grief overwhelmed me and I howled. I howled for losing her to death. I howled for losing our shared memories to the sands.

I howled for HER.

Suddenly, the presence in my mind disappeared and I was left standing dangerously close to the waterfall, with a mixed look of panic and confusion on my face. I snapped out of my bewilderment and jumped back, almost tripping over my own two feet.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" I yelled angrily, hissing at the Dahaka like a frightened animal. I already knew the answer, though: it had somehow brought me into a trance, invaded my mind and forced me to recall memories I had tried so hard to lock away. It tried to twist my thoughts, driving me mad with sorrow and making me wish for death.

I breathed deeply, calming myself down a bit. Those thoughts were not my own, I did not wish to die. Not at Farah's hands and certainly not at those of the Dahaka. I glanced sideways at the wicked creature, making sure I my gaze was directed at the ground at all times. It had decided to fight dirty, and I knew I had to avoid eye contact at all cost. This was easier said than done, though. When you tell someone on a cliff not to look down, you know it's only going to a matter of time before they do.

I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, my heart still beating twice as fast as it should. More out of habit than necessity, I had another drink from the fountain. Unfortunately, it did little to sooth my nerves or my stomach. Despite the strange magical properties of the water, I was beginning to feel hungry. I tried to ignore it, but you know how it goes: once you start thinking of food, things will only go downhill from there. The Dahaka suddenly growled, startling me slightly and almost making me spin around to look.

"Nice try," I spat with my back turned towards my nemesis, "but I won't make that mistake again."

Famous last words, I thought wryly, scowling at my own negativity but unable to help it. The last seven years have left me a bitter man. Dark, cynical and increasingly paranoid. As time progressed, I found myself having more and more trouble trusting others. Sometimes, I didn't even trust myself: being chased by the guardian of the timeline for seven years will do that to you.

'Guardian'… that's what the old man had called the Dahaka. During the rare nights when rain fell and the beast could not pursue me, I would often look at the stars and allow my thoughts to drift, pondering the meaning of those strange words. If the Dahaka was a guardian, what did that make me? A trespasser? A thief? There were times when I even started to doubt which one of us was truly evil. In a way, I guess I was a thief, living on stolen time…

"But I returned the sands to the Hourglass, undid my mistakes," I thought out loud. "Is it so wrong that I just wish to return to Babylon and live what is left of my life?"

I heard the Dahaka taking a breath, preparing to speak.

"No," I quickly beat him to it, "Don't start about my fate! I know that whoever releases the Sands must die, but I will stop that from happening. Once the portal is working again, I will…"

I paused. Just what _would_ I do? Kill kaileena? It had seemed like a foolproof plan: take the empress to the present, end her life and prevent the Maharajah from taking the sands. I could not let her live, for the Dahaka would chase her since she has no place in my time. It was better for Kaileena to die swiftly by my blade than having to go through the same hell as I…

Yet, doubt started creeping into my mind. Ending her life would save my own, but something just felt off. I tried to feel anger towards the woman: her right hand had destroyed my ship and killed my crew! Her seemingly endless army of sand creatures had done everything in their power to finish me off and the empress herself had made clear that she was also trying her hardest to change her fate. We were very much alike, her and I. The only difference was that my fate was sealed by my own mistake, while she was not to blame. I let my pride get the better of me and released the sand, which I had created myself. Not only was I the architect of my own destruction… but of hers as well.

Which led me to wonder…

… just how many more innocents would have to die?

I slumped down next to the waterfall, my head resting in my hands. Farah had once died by my mistake, and I was going to bestow the same fate on Kaileena. What gave me the right to think of myself as a god? To decide who would live or die just to save my own skin?

"It's my fault…" I whispered, realization finally sinking in. "All of this destruction…this madness… it's all my fault…"

Images flash trough my mind: the woman I loved falling to her death, my crew sent to a watery grave, Kaileena turning into the Sands… even Shadee, who had tried to protect her mistress from my selfishness, lying on the altar while her life force was fading away.

The Dahaka wasn't a monster…

… I was.

Slowly I got up and approached the portal. I tore another piece of my clothing and tied it to my sword, placing it on the platform. When Kaileena returned she would know what had happened… and she would know she no longer needed to live in fear.

I backed away, to the point where the environment was drained of all color and I could feel the waterfall grazing my back. I heard the Dahaka getting up and my legs almost gave way. I fought to stay standing: a prince will not die on his knees. I reached for my medallion, wrapping my fingers so tightly around it my knuckles turned white.

"Farah… give me strength…" I whispered as I closed my eyes… and stepped outside the room.

* * *

**A/N:** Oh dear, I do not have any control over myself when writing and I was quite surprised by the level of angst. I had no idea I had it in me XD 


End file.
